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April 1-3, 1976 Her Majesty's Theatre, London, ENG
In early 1976, the British section of Amnesty International was seeking a way to simultaneously raise funds for itself and elevate the very low profile of human rights issues in British public discourse. It decided to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Amnesty parent organisation with a simple one-night benefit show with a few entertainers contributing services as was the norm with charity events in that era. There was no anticipation that the event might be filmed or recorded to be shared with an audience beyond the people attending the benefit, and no anticipation that it might be anything other than a one-off event. Amnesty's Assistant Director Peter Luff approached John Cleese of the Monty Python comedy troupe to seek his participation. Cleese was taken with the idea and volunteered to assist the event by helping to "round up a few friends". Cleese's "few friends" reunited cast members of Beyond The Fringe, The Establishment, The Cambridge Circus, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Goodies who recreated a selection of their most famous routines originally performed on stage and television over the previous fifteen years. Dudley Moore and Eric Idle were unable to take part in the proceedings, but Terry Jones substituted in the “Fringe” sketches, and Peter Cook returned the compliment by joining the Pythons in their courtroom sendup. Also on the bill were Barry Humphries (finally cracking the big-time with the stage success Housewife Superstar and a BBC television special some weeks earlier), Des Jones exhibiting some physical dexterity with a pantomime routine and Neil Innes (about to appear with the Pythons in New York a fortnight later) providing a musical offering. Luff, working with his Amnesty colleague David Simpson, obtained the use of Her Majesty's Theatre, free of charge. The tickets for the show were advertised solely in the satirical magazine Private Eye and were sold out within four days. The other member of the production team was Martin Lewis, a young record industry executive who initially undertook to produce a record album of the show and then became closely involved with Cleese, Luff and Simpson on the show production – which evolved into a three-night run. TV documentary maker Roger Graef, approached the team offering to make a "fly-on-the-wall"-style documentary about the production of the show and to film the show itself. The resulting film was titled Pleasure at Her Majesty's. Lewis also undertook responsibility for publicising the show and its film and record spin-offs. The show – titled by Cleese A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) – took place on 1–3 April 1976 as a series of late-night galas at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End theatre district. The show was directed by Beyond The Fringe alumnus Jonathan Miller. The shows started at 11.30 pm, after the performance of the theatre's regularly scheduled play. Being late-night events became a hallmark of subsequent shows. In addition to Lewis' audio recording team, Roger Graef, used a small 16 mm crew, to film rehearsals and performances. The footage was later assembled into the film Pleasure At Her Majesty's, which premiered in November 1976 at the 20th annual London Film Festival, and was broadcast by the BBC in December 1976. Subsequently, the film received a modest theatrical release at art-house cinemas in 1977. A record album of the show, titled A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick), was released in November 1976 by Transatlantic Records and was a commercial success. The original working title for the show had been An Evening Without David Frost – an allusion to the fact that most of the performers had worked with, or for, David Frost early in their careers. The Show Directed by Jonathan Miller and featuring Alan Bennett, John Bird, Eleanor Bron, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Carol Cleveland, Peter Cook, John Fortune, Graeme Garden, Terry Gilliam, Barry Humphries, Neil Innes, Desmond Jones, Terry Jones, Jonathan Lynn, Jonathan Miller, Bill Oddie and Michael Palin. Parrot Sketch (Cleese & Palin) Happy, Darling? (Bron & Fortune) Funky Gibbon (Brooke-Taylor/Garden/Oddie) Pantomime (Des Jones) T.E. Lawrence (Bennett) True British Spunk (Humphries) The Miner (Cook) Court Room Sketch (The Pythons plus Cook) Portraits From Memory (Miller) A Few Words from Idi Amin (Bird) Siblings (Fortune & Bron) Cactus In My ‘Y’ Fronts (Brooke-Taylor/Garden/Oddie) Argument Clinic (The Pythons) Mummy, Mummy, Mummy (Brooke-Taylor/Garden/Oddie) Au Pair (Bron) Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (aka You Say Potato) (Bird & Fortune) Sick Man’s Blues (Brooke-Taylor/Garden/Oddie) Crunchy Frog (The Pythons) Baby Talk (Bron & Fortune) The Last Supper (Cleese & Lynn) Telegram (Bennett) Protest Song (Innes) Hamlet (Des Jones) Asp (Cook & Fortune) The Japes Lecture (The Pythons) Appeal (Bron) So That’s The Way You Like It (Bennett/Cook/Miller/T Jones) Lumberjack Song (Palin & Company)